Commercial powers on Thursday agreed to speed troubled World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and finish a new free trade treaty by end-2007.
Ministers from Brazil, the European Union, India, the United States, Australia and Japan, the so-called Group of Six (G6), promised to accelerate their search for convergence in the crucial areas of farm and industrial goods and services.
"We believe that by intensifying our work, we can reach convergence and thus contribute to concluding the round by the end of 2007," they said in a statement.
Earlier, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the talks made progress on what the next steps should be, but there was no discussion of the key numbers in areas such as farm subsidies and industrial tariffs that will be needed for a deal.
"We are making progress on how to make progress," he told reporters.
The WTO's Doha round of negotiations to lower barriers to trade has missed deadline after deadline as negotiators struggle to find common ground, mostly on farming, but also on market access for industrial goods and services. Patience is wearing thin among other countries in the 150-member WTO as they wait for a sign of convergence amongst the trade powers.
The trading powers have taken the lead in seeking a deal after the WTO negotiations all but collapsed last year over the continuing deep differences, particularly in agriculture. But the focus has been on bilateral discussions between the G6 members since the WTO relaunched the round at the end of January and the New Delhi meeting is the first time they have sat at the same table to negotiate since last July.
"The key to the quiet conversations is the ability to talk about 'what ifs'? It's a 'what if' conversation," said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, who attended the two days of talks.
Key sticking points have been how far the United States is prepared to go in cutting farming subsidies and how far developing nations like India and Brazil will allow access to their markets in agriculture and industrial products. Any breakthrough had to comprise, at least, market access on agriculture, industry and services, she said.
"Because if you don't have a breakthrough on the market access part of the trade negotiations, none of the rest of it can come together," she said, echoing a long-standing US demand. Special US presidential powers to negotiate on trade, so-called "fast-track" authority, lapse on June 30 and some negotiators argue a breakthrough in the WTO talks is needed before then to encourage Congress to renew them.
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